Multiple-effect compressor.



Mmmm mm' 1905.

T., VUURHHESL MULTIPLE EFFECT mMPREssom APPLJIATIOH FILED JULY 30.19031.

tro. resaca.

niTn STATES Patented July 4l, 190'".

PATENT rricn.

GARDNER l. VOORHEES, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSET'I'S, flitlSlG-NOR T() WlLLlAM H. HARRIS,- TRUSllCl, OF NEW YURK, N. Y.

Murrieta-armor compenseert.

SPEUIFGATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 793,864, dated July el, 1905.

Application filed July 30, 1903. Serial No. 167,582.

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Beit known that l, (jrARDNnn .l. Voorn-inns, a citizen of the United States of America, residing' at Boston, in the county ol" Suiiolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful improvements in lrlultiple-Effeet Compressors, of which the following is a specilication. Y

My invention relates to refrigerating apparatus, particularly to compressors.

ln many applications of refrigeration it is often desirable to maintain in different refrigerators different temperatures of the volatile refrigerant-fol"example, in a cold-storage warehouse where brine, say, at O0 and l5O liahrenhcit temperature is to be used, in a plant making plate-ice and also can-ice or where a high temlicrature is required for the lil-st freezing of the plate and a low temperature for the last freezing, also in cooling1 living-rooms, requiring brine of high temperatures in connection with an ice or cold-storage plant using lower teniperatures. Further, in an icecream-freezing plant a low temperature may be maintained to freeze the cream, while higher temperatures are employed in freezing ice and cooling storerooms. Likewise a cooling-water plant may require low temperatures besides the higher temperature for cooling the water. In ice-making if the water before going to the cans is cooled, say, from 80@ to 320 Fahrenheit thirty-live per cent. would he added to the capacity of the compressor. The additional power required could be furnished without the use of extra steam by making the engine compound. The above cases and many others necessitate the use of two or more different compressors, each operating at a different back pressure, and therefore temperature.

New the object of my invention is so to modify existing forms of compressors that a single compressor can do refrigeration at two or more different back pressures. and l accomplish this object by providing a compressor with a cylinder having therein two or more back-pressure inlets leading from refrigerators having dilicrent temperatures.

lhe principle of my invention involves Boyles law. lf in a given case a vessel is full of gas at twenty pounds absolute pressure and a like gas at forty pounds pressure is allowed to enter the vessel, the original gas at twenty pounds will be compressed to one-half its volume, have its pressure doubled to forty pounds, and the remaining halll of the space in the vessel will be lilled by gas at forty pounds pressure. Similarly the pressure of the gas in the vessel could bc raised to sixty pounds, then to eighty, or any other higher pressure, if so desired.

ln the following diagrammatic drawings, Figure l is a sectional View of the preferred form of my invention as applied to compressors. lfig. 2 is a like view of a common single-actingcompresser having one-half the volume of the comprcssorshown in Fig. l.. Figs. 3, il, and 5 are indicator-diagrams showing the action of the compressors in Figs. l and 2 in various ways. Fig. 6 is a modified form of single-acting compressor with my invention applied thereto. Fig. 7 is a double-acting compressor having my invention applied thereto. lllig. 8 is a sectional View of the valve Gr and its gears shown in Figs. (i and 7, while Fig. 9 is a diagrammatic view showing' my compressor in connection with a high-pressure-gas receiver and several sources of low-pressure gas.

In the drawings illustrating the principle of my invention and the best way now known to me of embodying that principle a compressorcylindcr A has a piston B, provided with a piston-rod C, which is caused to reciprocate lby any well-known means. Said cylinder has a suction-valve chamber D and a dischargevalve chamber E. An opening' leading from the former into the cylinder is controlled by suction-valve (l, while an outlet from the cylinder into the discharge-chamber E is controlled by a discharge-valve e e, being a discharge gas outlet leading to a condenser. (Not shown.) Connecting said suction-valve chamber D with some refrigerator (also not shown) is a suction gas-inlet d. l1" F2 l1 are ports opening into the cylinder it for auxiliary gas-inlets f f2 f3, the ports F3 F2 being controlled by valves of the puppet type get and g5.

The operation of my invention is as follows: First, let us consider Fig. l. Valves (Z3, d, and l are shut, valve Z2 is open, and the compressor is like any ordinary single-acting compressor, the pipe d conducting from a refrigerator to the cylinder a supply of ammonia-gas at, say, twenty pounds absolute back pressure and the piston/B moving from position B to B. Said gas at twenty pounds is drawn into the cylinder through pipe d', chamber D, and suction-valve d. The pressure of the gas in the cylinder as the piston B moves inward is represented by line l 2 on card 0., Fig. 3, the line V V representing' a perfect vacuum in the cylinder A. The piston at position B changes the direction of its motion and returns toward B, thereby increasing the pressure of the gas until it reaches the condenser-pressure in the discharge-valve channber E, the change in pressure in the cylinder being shown by line 2 3 on said card a. The discharge-valve e is forced open, and the compressed gas is discharged through valve c, chamber E, and pipe e to the condenser, the line 3 4, card a, showing the pressure in the cylinder during this discharge. The piston now starts in the opposite direction, the pressure falls, the valve e immediately shutting' and the suction-valve (Z again opening', the fall of pressure being' represented by the line 41 of card c. Second, let us consider Fig. 2. This compressor is assumed to be connected at e with the same condenser as is the first compressor just described and shown in Fig. l; but its suction gas-inlet d communicates with a refrigerator supplying ammonia-gas, say, at forty pounds absolute pressure. Further, be it remembered that this second compressor has one-half the capacity of the first compressor. This second compressor has the same mode of operation as the first, its indicatorecard being that on card c, Fig. 4. Third, returning to Fig. l, let us close valves Z2 d" Z5 and open valve (Z3, CZ connecting with gas at twenty pounds pressure and f connecting with the same supply of gas at forty pounds pressure, as was the second compressor in Fig. 2, and let communicate with the same condenser as did the first and the second compressors. Start the piston, asat B. Gas at twenty pounds pressure will4 enter the cylinder A, as already described, until the piston nearly reaches position B before opening port F. Line l 2 of indicator-card Z2, Fig. 5, is drawn and indicates the gas as having a pressure of twenty pounds. As the piston finishes its stroke the port F is uncovered and the gas under forty pounds pressure from the refrigerator rushes into the cylinder, compressing the gas already therein at twenty pounds pressure to one-half its volume and doubling its pressure to forty pounds, the other half of the cylinder being filled by the incoming gas under forty pounds pressure, there resulting in one cylinder the same quantity of gas at forty pounds pressure as that which was formerly in the first compressor and second compressor at twenty pounds and forty pounds, respectively. This change in pressure is indicated by line 2 6, card b. The piston now moves toward B', and the gas in cylinder is compressed to the condenser-pressure and valve e opens, the line 6 7 of card b showing the increase of pressure and the point in the stroke of the piston at which the valve e opens. The compressed gas at condenser pressure is discharged through said valve e, discharge-chamber E, and discharge-outlet e to the condenser. Line 7 3 4 of said card 7) indicates the pressure of the gas in the cylinder during said discharge into condenser. The moment the piston B reaches its original starting position and begins to repeat its cycle the discharge-valve closes, a vacu um tends to form, and the pressure falls, as shown by line 4 1 of said card b, until twenty pounds pressure is reached, when valve (Z opens under the twenty pounds gaspressure in chamber D. The card l 2 6 7 4 1 is formed, and from it we learn that when port F/ was uncovered the gas at twenty pounds was raised to a pressure of forty pounds, or that the same action took place as if the piston were moved from B to B3 and the cylinder full of gas at twenty pounds were compressed to one-half its volume and had twice its pressure-viz., forty pounds-for point 9 is midway between points 5 and 6, the beginning and end of each stroke of the piston, and being' on a line indicating forty pounds pressure. That there is twice the amount of gas at forty pounds that there was in the case where only gas at twenty pounds was used is made plain by the line 4 3 7, which is twice as long as 4 3. Evidently by combining the port F with the piston B the new multipleeifect compressor can do as much work as was originally done by the combined first compressor in Fig. l and the second compressor in Fig. 2. The work expended in the first compressor is proportional to the M. E. P. and the area of the piston, and in the second compressor the work is likewise proportional to its M. E. P. and the area of the piston; but said area is one-half that of the piston of the first compressor. The work expended in the multiple-effect compressor is also proportional to the M. E. P. and the area of its piston. Assuming the condenser-pressurein all above cases is one hundred and seventy pounds absolute, then the M. E. P. in the first compressor is fifty-five pounds and the M. E. P. in the second compressor is sixty-eight pounds, By solving the proportion it appears that the theoretical power to operate the double-effect compressor-cylinder is somewhat less than that of the combined theoretical power required in the first compressor and the second compres- IOO of gas from each higher-pressure additional source is admitted ser/attiva to the cylinder, and mixes with the gas in the cylinder, and partially compresses it; then the mixed and partially-compressed body of gas in the cylinder is further compressed by the piston, and is discharged to the high-pressure-gas receiver.

3. In a gas-compressor, the combination of a cylinder; a piston fitting in said cylinder; means to reciprocate said piston in said cylinder; a suction-portopening into said cylinder; a Valve governing the same; a discharge-port opening into said cylinder; a valve governing the same; a conduit leading from a low-pressure refrigerator to said suction-port and valve; a conduit leading away from said discharge-port and valve to a condenser; an additional suction-port opening into said cylinder; an additional suctionvalve governing the same; a conduit leading from a higher-pressure refrigerator to said additional suctionport and valve; all so arranged and governed that during operation, a body of gas from the low-pressure refrigerator is admitted to the cylinder; then a body of higher-pressure gas from the higher-pressure refrigerator is admitted to the cylinder, and mixes with the low-pressure gas, and partially compresses it; then the mixed and partially-compressed body of gas in the cylinder is further compressed by the piston, and is discharged to a condenser.

4. In a gas-compressor, the combination of a cylinder; a piston fitting in said cylinder; means to reciprocate said piston in said cylinder; asuction-port, openinginto said cylinder; a valve governing the same; a discharge-port opening into said cylinder; a Valve governing the same; a conduit leading from a lowpressure refrigerator to said suction-port and valve; a conduit leading away from said discharge-port and valve to a condenser; additional suction-ports opening' into said cylinder; additional suction-valves governing' the same; additional conduits, leading to said ports from additional refrigerators at different pressures and at higher pressures than that of the low-pressure refrigerator; all so arranged and governed that during operation, a body of gas from the low-pressure refrigerator is admitted to the cylinder; then a body of gas from each higher-pressure additional refrigerator is admitted sweat/m to the cylinder, and mixes with the gas in the cylinder, and partially compresses it; then the mixed and partially-compressed body of gas in the cylinder is further compressed by the piston, and is discharged to a condenser.

In testimony Whereofl affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

GARDNER T. VOORHEES.

Witnesses:

JOSEPH O. WRIGHT, MARIE O. NUGERER. 

